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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Many aeons ago (otherwise known as the time before my second year at uni), I wrote prose. Lengthy prose that rambled all over the place and didn't really have a plot. It was more a way of tracking the life of the character than telling any proper story. Because, you see, I have a huge number of characters milling around in my head. They live there and now and then they have been known to pass judgement on my every day life. It's very annoying, because I know they're not real, but for some reason this does not stop the snide comments (and occasional concerned comments from friends who seem to think there's something wrong with me). Anyways, given my love of music, it seemed only natural that at least one of this multitude of characters should have an interest in music. And then I wondered what music she'd like. So I strung together a playlist. That said, it probably says more about me than the character, but I can relate each song to something that happens in the character's life. The bad times and the good, all slung together in one little playlist. And because I'm feeling like death warmed up and therefore can't actually focus on the 4000 word report I'm supposed to be writing, I figured I'd share this playlist with the ether. Have fun. There's bits of all sorts, but it's pretty rock heavy. I've included Grooveshark links for the ones I could find there. I suspect some of them are dead links, but there's no harm in trying.

For the most part, it's painfully clear to me that most of the choices were made in my first year at university. The songs meant more to me then, but even now I can listen to these tracks and know exactly what point in the character's life they're related to. And there's a clear enough chronology to them - tracks 1 through 8 represent a totally distinct period of life, track 9 is a transition and tracks 10-16 are more representative of her current state (in my head, at least). It's interesting to listen and remember all the shit I put the character through in the name of "character development". Rather misguided, I think, but it did make for an interesting personality. Anyways, enough babbling, because the nausea from this afternoon has just decided to pop in and say hello again.

You say "don't let teh RAWK die," I say you're overexaggerating.
You say "lol I'm hardc0re," I say you're attention-seeking.
You say "fuck da pop muzik," I say you're really desperate for approval from the big kids.
You say "you suck for liking this and my taste is better," I say you're an arrogant little fucktard.
You say you know what "real music is," I say "then why don't you have Def Leppard on here?"
You say bullshit statistics, I say if you honestly think rock is "in danger of dying" you need to get out more.

There was more, but I don't think I really need to post all of it. If you really want to read all of it, you can do so HERE. What I really wanted to say was: THIS PERSON IS MADE OF AWESOME. Now, while I am definitely guilty of bemoaning the love many people have for pop, I accept that it's their choice to listen to it. Besides, I like Lady Gaga and I like McFly and I like a lot of those 'alternative' bands who should really be counted as pop because they're so squishy and mainstream. For example, right now I'm listening to Mayday Parade. They definitely have pop-rock moments. Anyway, back to the actual topic.

If people who post these "you say [pop act], i say [generic rock band]" comments really think so few people listen to rock, metal and the like, they must be even more stupid than the comment suggests. I think you'll find that while, yes, a huge number of people listen to pop and it does sell a lot more than anything else, that huge numbers of people also listen to other music. Also, if you really do want to pick fights with people over taste in music, at least chose some less generic bands to use. I like Evanescence and Linkin Park, but they're effectively pop simply because so many people listen to them. Try someone like... oh, I don't know, someone who hasn't sold millions of albums? There's so many brilliant bands out there you could use. It still doesn't mean they're any better than pop artists. OK, so maybe I think rock is generally better than pop, but that doesn't mean all pop is shit.

I'm kinda losing my thread here, so I'm going to go off on a slight tangent. It's related, I promise. The tangent is this - variety is the spice of life. I stand by that statement, so when I saw someone on YouTube say that we should stop people who like My Chemical Romance from listening to Murderdolls because MCR is "gay ass shit" and Murderdolls aren't "scene or emo", I couldn't help but reply. Since when did listening to one type of music disqualify you from listening to others? I pointed this out to her and to her credit, she was polite in her reply, which was "I didn't say you couldn't, but scene kids are taking over and we have to stop them in order to﻿ keep metal alive!!" Sorry, honey, but last I checked "scene" wasn't half as popular as it was a couple of years ago. Besides, you kinda contradicted yourself there - you're allowed to listen to whatever the hell you want, but scene kids aren't allowed to listen to some stuff because they'll kill it? Metal's in no danger of dying, dude. Let them listen to what they want and get over yourself. I dislike scenies if they're into bands because it's cool or popular to like them, but if they genuinely like them, then what's the problem? I also don't really like when bands I like suddenly get popular, but there's fuck all I can do about that.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

This is a new short from Bill Domonkos who mixes old archive footage with animations (2D and 3D). The reason I'm posting it is because Jill Tracy had a hand in composing the score. It's a beautiful piece of music and it's available HERE.

A piece of not so much brilliance:

I love Cobra Starship. They're fun and silly and cheesy as hell. But this... like McFly's Party Girl, I'm hoping it grows on me, but really, I can't see it happening. I'm all up for change, but this isn't the Cobra I love. After the rather mediocre effort that was Hot Mess, I was hoping for something more like While The City Sleeps or Viva La Cobra. Evidently, that hasn't happened. So I'm now drowning my ears in old Cobra to make me feel better. Ugh.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Iiiiiiiiiii... haven't posted for weeks and I don't have a good excuse. I'm also not in the mood for writing a proper Band of the Week, so we have super-mega-awesome feature (take two) instead. Yay! Moving on...

First up, the delectable Jill Tracy. Dark cabaret. Think smoky jazz clubs and that gorgeously sultry music with a sinister edge. She's got a damn good voice.

Then we have Civet. Self-styled 'femme fatale punk rock', for which read really good punk with even more awesome female vocals. Again, damn good voice.

Next, Bourbon Crow, outlaw country from Wednesday 13 and Rayen Belchare (both of horror-punk band Wednesday 13). Brilliant, tongue-in-cheek country. By which I mean it takes the piss out of the genre while still being really good music.

Hmmm... who next? Nine Inch Nails hardly need plugging, they're HUGE, but hey, they're also awesome so check 'em out if you haven't.

And then go and have a listen to Dommin and their lovely atmospheric gothic rock/metal. Brilliant live and their cover of Cutting Crew's Died In Your Arms is beautiful.

Is five artists enough to count as a super-mega-awesome feature? Hmm, maybe one or two additional pieces of scrumminess...

This is EPIC:

This is Enter Shikari, by the way, covering one of their own songs. Class. And available for free download too. One sec, I'll find the link. First one on this page 'ere: http://www.entershikari.com/downloads/

And finally, this 'ere has to be one of my favourite covers ever. You know I said Nine Inch Nails are awesome? Have a listen to how awesome Japanese Voyeurs' cover of their song Closer is.

Hello, random strangers

So, on a bit of a whim I decided to start a blog. This is probably a bad move and I'll start forgetting to use it in a few months. BUT in the mean time, it's just going to be a collection of random musings. Largely about music, but I'm sure I'll find other stuff to talk about.

IATSATH is just my most common username. Anywhere else you find it - it's probably me. This HERE is my Last.fm, which is the most relevant to this blog.